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Without question, video games have an extensive impact on “children’s and adolescents’ behavior, values, and beliefs,” and they have the ability “to transcend the influence of parents and peers in providing information about the world in which they live in” (Strasburger, Wilson, & Jordan, 471). This in itself provides the importance of looking at video games with a narrow scope.

Video games are different than other forms of media because they create a personal mythology for the consumer. This consumer is almost exclusively children and young adults, so their effects are potentially farther reaching, especially in the realm of gender expectations and portrayals. According to the authors of Children, Adolescents, and the Media, the motivation for kids to play video games is “to vicariously experience, to vicariously live in other places and times, to compete, and to safely explore fantasy relationships” (Strasburger, Wilson, & Jordan, 438). Because of this interactive relationship with video games, children tend to lose sight of the fictitious nature of the game, which suggests "that the effects could be stronger than television or other traditional media” (Strasburger, Wilson, & Jordan, 471). The connection between gender constructions and video games is a strong one, and will be explored throughout the section of this wiki with an emphasis on children eight and under.